The Chapter Story
By Sherrie Benes

I would like to introduce to you a new feature column that I will be writing for our Whitewater Banner. I am excited to start this column, so let me explain a little bit about it first!

It all started in our local Hillside Cemetery a few years ago…

While taking a walk through this cemetery one day and reading some of the headstones, I began to wonder who all these individuals were. What brought them to Whitewater? What did they do? Who were their families? 

Luckily since I was in a cemetery, I had no one around to hear me asking aloud these questions while staring at a headstone that belonged to a person, I had no idea who they were! But they were someone, to somebody, at one time…

After that day, every morning I would say aloud “good morning” to all those who were laid to rest in that cemetery, as I drove past on my way to work. I thought someday it would be an interesting project to research all those resting there and to write their stories. Some had many chapters, some had few, but no matter how many chapters they had in that book, it was their story.

I knew that would be quite the undertaking, so I got to thinking that maybe the next best thing would be to get to know those in our community now, before their book closed. I’ve heard many phrases when people reminisce on their lives, but one thing remains the same, it belongs solely to us; we are the authors.

So, let’s get to know one another, whether it’s a toddler that I may interview, (which will be very interesting seeing that they are in the first chapters of their lives!), or if I am interviewing an individual who may say his story is a Gone with the Wind novel, because he’s on his 96 (years old) chapter!

No matter who the individual is, I look forward to hearing and writing about those who reside in and around our community! 

I would like to say “it takes many authors and many pages to create these volumes within our community.”

Welcome to the Chapter Story ‘library’….

If you know of anyone that would like to share their story, you can contact me at:

WhitewaterBanner@gmail.com

Subject line:  Chapter Story

I look forward to this fun, unconventional “book club!”

Sherrie

The image on the homepage, “books” by peter.clark is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.